“Keep on moving,” said his father, and Sean nodded.

Moving his body was tedious before, and it still was, but his great Vitality let him recover faster than he could get tired. He was now able to simply not care about any downtime or exhaustion. But the pain was now evident when he moved, aching every now and then. He could heal broken bones in three days if they were major ones but his Vitality had increased ever so slightly after that.

There were others outside now. They were training as well, it seemed. Mostly spars, using wooden sticks that were about the size of daggers and some cool-looking crossbows being shot at targets. Sean could see Uncle Jeremy pacing around, shouting commands on the other side of the manor.

But his practice?

It was basically sidestepping but while breathing constantly —barely stopping his inhalation.

“If you stop moving or breathing, you die,” he said and Sean felt his lungs strain. He wasn’t used to exercising like this. His body couldn’t get enough oxygen, and for the first time, Sean felt himself get tired and exhausted. It had been only around thirty minutes since he’d started this but it felt worse than running up a mountain for an entire night, “Breathe harder and more, or you’ll exhaust yourself.”

He could keep breathing for thirty seconds while moving but he ended up stopping at that mark.

Sean was heaving now, not due to hyperventilation, but due to actual exhaustion.

“You want to kill the vampires, don’t you?” asked his father, “Then learn to breathe like that. Or you’ll be simply crushed with a mere flick of their wrist. They can turn cars into balls of steel. Your bones are nothing.”

He was trying, truly, yet he couldn’t push on further.

Sean groaned as he collapsed, falling to the ground on his butt onto the barren ground. Most of the grass was gone in the easily accessible parts of the manor. The reason was obvious —people were training and they were moving around freely. And for who knows how long. He hadn’t sat down with them just yet.

“Before you learn that, you are not allowed to hunt,” said his father, but when Sean collapsed, he took a seat next to him. He wasn’t angry but he had the frown back on his face. Sean preferred that over the grin he’d seen recently.

He was angry and tired.

So he felt like sleeping.

“Keep your mind clear,” said his father, “Don’t regret. Move forward.”

Sean simply listened. He couldn’t speak, heaving like that, nor did he want to.

The crippling depression had eased.

It wasn’t crippling now.

That didn’t mean he was fine, though. He was filled with anger and frustration. He felt helpless —a mix of feelings he never wanted to feel again if he could help it. There was something so utterly wrong with that feeling. It made him feel… helpless.

“How many did you kill?” asked Sean, looking down. He hadn’t meant to ask that but it simply came out of his mouth, “Monsters, I mean.”

“Twenty-two,” said his father, staring off at the distance, sitting just an inch to his right, “Many don’t even get a first. It’s not a job for everyone. It’s dangerous. Every hunt is a fight stacked against your favor. You don’t have to force yourself if you can’t do it.”

“It is a job for me,” said Sean, “I felt… relieved when I killed it.”

He went quiet.

Was it a job for him? Was he really good hunter material?

Aunt Charlie said he was, but was he, really?

“Then you won’t be a good hunter,” said his father.

Sean turned to look at him, angry now. Sean whispered, barely containing his rage, “And why is that?”

“Because you were relieved when you killed it,” he said, “You wouldn’t be relieved if you would be a good hunter. You would have asked for more if you were. Like all the hunters that survived. Relieved? That’s the same feeling all the hunters that died felt.”

Again, he was quiet.

“Think about it. That anger. Will it always be with you? Because once you’ve made the choice, there’s no turning back. They’ll be out for you, trying to hunt you down every step of the way for the rest of your life,” said his father, “You were in a gray area before, because of our mistakes. But if you kill one of theirs and they find out, then you become a target.”

The exhaustion had fended off the sadness but it came back with full force once he remembered what had caused it in the first place —Clara’s death. They’d killed her so they had to die.

It was too simple a connection to make before, but now, it was different.

“Did I ever have a choice?” asked Sean.

His house was intentionally ruined, even a supposedly mindless vampire attacked him on sight after seeing his name and the family he could turn to for support talked of killing as if it was just a walk in the park.

But the scariest thing about everything was none of those facts.

It was the fact that it was easy. Killing something was far too easy. He tried to lie to himself, tried to paint the giants and the vampires as monsters. And that made it too easy.

It was disturbing.

Was he turning into a murderer?

No… he was a hunter.

It was his job and responsibility to hunt.

Sean looked at his father and caught him slowly shaking his head. He had his usual frown on his face. It was difficult to force him to have any expression other than that.

“Things have changed,” said Sean, “It’s even less of an option than before, dad. I have to kill to survive now. I can’t count on cops and soldiers to protect me. Heck, I’m guessing they’re all running around, panicking like us when monsters straight out of Jurassic Park popped out. Add vampires and all the nonsense on top of it and-”

“They know,” interjected his father, stopping Sean in the middle of his sentence, “They’ve been compromised for a long time now. Even before Broica announced its independence. The only military that isn’t compromised for sure is the Coalition.”

What?

Did vampires just serve in the military, ready to kill everyone?

“They can brainwash people and turn them into their willing servants,” said his father, “That’s why you have to keep breathing. If you stop, your blood starts flowing slower. If it does, it sets in. And if it sets in, you’re compromised. If you keep breathing, maybe you’ll have a chance.”

Sean’s eyes narrowed.

Was that what the vampire he’d killed tried to do?

Did his… Presence negate it?

It seemed to imply that it could negate any effect that affected the mind as long as it didn’t come from someone divine —but what were the odds of him having to fight gods?

“Is that all it stops?” asked Sean. If it was so, then he could ignore it. Breathing like this was hell and getting used to it was a far-fetched dream.

“It stops everything they can do to you without their claws and fangs. Don’t slack off on the basics. It’ll save your life more than fancy techniques ever will, especially if you’re a wizard,” he said and pointed at the others training in the distance, “You don’t need any of that nonsense. Just learn to survive.”

But he wanted more.

He wanted to kill them.

There was truth in his father’s words, though. He could get stronger with his Magic so physical techniques were unnecessary for him.

Getting a little bit of Agility was necessary, however, as Sean realized just how slow he was back in the encounter with the vampire. If Liz wasn’t there to push him out of the way, he would have died.

Speaking of Liz, Aunt Charlie and Chris had gone to meet them…

He’d almost started to wonder where Chris was despite knowing the answer, but no one could blame him —wanting to see a friend after so long was something that everyone felt, especially if it was a childhood friend that you took for granted.

“You can move away, you know? Overseas, either to America or Australia,” his father said as he stood up, leaving him alone, “Then you won’t need to deal with all this nonsense that we dug ourselves into.”

“I won’t,” said Sean, “I won’t run from them. I’ll run to them.”

“At least you got the spirit,” said his father and waved his hand lazily, walking back to the house, “Do whatever you want, but you aren’t leaving the manor until you learn how to breathe like that.”

Sean watched his back as he walked away and activated his Appraisal. The System complied, giving him a Status Screen.

Skill ‘Appraisal’ has been activated!

Name: Jack Morris

Class: Slayer Lvl 5

Title(s): Survivor, Monster Slayer, Survivor, Wolfsbane

Mana: 230/230

He was already Level 5.

Sean hadn’t gotten a single quest since he came back to Earth. Had his father gotten it, or did he just kill enough monsters after he came back —both from the System and those not from it?

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

His eyes turned to the others and used his Appraisal on them. Only four of them caught his eyes: one was Uncle Jeremy, one was one of his old classmates and the other two were… his childhood bullies.

Rex, Jason, and Max.

Rex’s full name Rexford but no one but teachers used to call him that, and even the teachers didn’t call him so unless they were scolding him. Then again, most of the time, they were scolding him.

He’d grown taller and his jawline was squarer now, more toned. He had a breastplate similar to Liz’s. The shape of Liz’s armor was the same as Rex’s. Clearly, there was no difference between male and female when it came to armors. The only difference was size because Rex stood a good head taller than Sean —that meant he was a head and a half taller than Liz.

Rex was the typical big bully —the guy that looked imposing just by standing in front of you.

Jason was different. He was leaner, smaller, and seemed to be the same size as Sean. He was agile and had a leather jacket and ear piercings, even back in middle school. His trademark bulging eyes were still pronounced, but now his eyelids seemed to have grown slightly darker. He looked like he had some Indian heritage somewhere in his family tree but it didn’t show anywhere other than his eyes.

Max… Maximus was different. He was one of Sean’s friends back in middle school. Then again, friendship at that age came in the form of a connection made over something. The particular one they’d bonded over was playing video games, which Sean had dropped in his high school years —thus, their connection had been severed then.

Not that there were games anymore.

He was taller now, almost lanky. He had a wiry frame and his limbs looked like they were barely sticks compared to Rex, but Sean knew that it wasn’t all that far from what he looked like. He himself didn’t have much in terms of muscles and was rather light on his feet. Just slightly toned now. Before, there was a thin layer of fat.

Rex had changed far too much but Jason was still the same.

Sean collapsed to the ground, now lying down instead of sitting. He hadn’t grown hungry in some time and eating a tiny bit of snacks was enough to sate his hunger so far. Ever since the System came, in fact.

It took care of his wastes and seemed to let him eat less food than he would have without the System. Otherwise, he’d have collapsed from hunger a long time ago. At least he thought he would have. He hadn’t eaten much lately, even in Veidrheim, when he was recovering from his injuries —when he needed it most.

He’d undoubtedly be covered in dirt when he got up but he didn’t care now. That was at least better than being covered in blood and he was sure he smelled like it even now. He’d only lazily wiped himself with it.

Sean wanted to sleep again.

“It’s been a while,” said someone. Sean didn’t even need to open his eyes to know who it was —it was Rex. It was a deep voice, as expected of his stature.

Fate wouldn’t have it, it seemed.

He opened his eyes again and looked up at Rex. He looked like some knight straight out of a fantasy movie. Their life was different now and something like this was only natural.

Next to him was Jason.

If they were a few years younger, then perhaps Sean would have wanted nothing to do with them. Rather, if it had been two weeks ago, he would have hated being near them. Now… now it was different —nothing from the old world felt real. It felt like he was in a brand new world.

His old world ended yesterday.

“Six years,” said Sean. They hadn’t met for a while.

“You’ve changed,” said Rex. He was still standing, hands crossed.

“Says you,” said Sean with a small chuckle. It was awkward. There was nothing he could talk about now. Killing? Too brutal. How he’d been? Most likely badly. Sean assumed everyone had a horrible experience in the Calibration.

“High school happened,” he said, “Wore glasses for a bit but now I don’t need it. Those changes are from before the System. But you… It’s like you’re a different person after the Calibration.”

Jason crashed into the calm atmosphere like thunder with a booming voice, as if he was far too eager to come into the conversation all along, “Why didn’t you tell me that everyone in your family was a damn badass? We would’ve been the bestest homies if you did.”

Sean wanted to tell him that even he hadn’t known about that, but he knew it was more a rhetorical question than anything else.

Max simply stood aside at the back, checking on the pouches hanging from his belt. He had a cloak on him not very different from the one he wore, except it was brown and it almost made him look… obscure?

That reminded him of his own cloak. He had to see if it could be fixed. It’d be a waste if it couldn’t be but from what Appraisal told him, it seemed to be a reversible process as long as he fed it enough Mana.

Speaking of… if he could use Appraisal on his items, what if he used it on Max’s cloak?

Sean activated it and waited —nothing happened.

It seemed like the System only showed him information if it was his own item. Or maybe it wasn’t an item from the System and just looked like one.

“Anyways, it seems like we’ll be living here for some time. They sent out a party to look for relatives in the haven last night but no one returned-” started Rex but Sean’s eyes widened.

What did he say?

“What do you mean?” he asked and stood up.

“They say that monsters may have taken over,” added Rex helpfully, but to Sean, it was anything but that. Before he even finished the sentence, he started to walk back to the mansion. It started as a walk but turned into a run, then the run turned into a sprint.

He’d sent Chris and Aunt Charlie there!

And… and Liz.

She was there.

To him, Liz was a friend now but seeing Chris go through the same thing he had… it was a feeling he wouldn’t wish upon his worst enemy.

Sean felt something he hated. It was fear. His heart started to beat for all the wrong reasons now, or was it the right ones?

He barged into the house and saw only his father and a distant relative sitting there. He recognized that face from when his uncles got together for family reunions. Many of them were bachelors and Sean assumed that only three of them were married —there were more than ten.

Here, though?

There seemed to be only 3, including Uncle Jeremy. Uncle Edmund was gone but his entire family was here —both Aunt Charlie and Chris.

Had he sent them to their deaths?

“Why didn’t you tell me?” asked Sean the moment he came in, almost a shout.

His father’s questioning gaze forced Sean to clarify.

“That the haven was taken over?” he added.

He didn’t answer and looked at Sean as if he was a moron.

What was that look for?

His family was about to die!

That was when his mother and another woman, slightly older than her, came down from upstairs. Saying that they came down would be wrong. They were simply peeking out, standing at the top. The mansion was old and someone on the first floor could see the people up above on the second floor, with two sets of stairs that came down from either side and to the entrance, making a neat half-circle in the process.

“Chris… Aunt Charlie… they went there. Why didn’t you stop them?” asked Sean. He felt a sudden weakness take over him as his knees buckled. But he forced himself to stand, using one of his hands to hold himself upright by hanging on to the wall.

His left eye twitched.

“Why…” mumbled Sean and he took a deep breath in. He let it out again and then let it out.

He had to keep calm.

There had to be a reason.

“If Charlie dies, then no one stands a chance, kid,” said the other uncle. Sean didn’t remember his name so he had to be a distant one or one that rarely visited outside of family reunions —they happened at the manor. Sean hadn’t been brought there all that many times. Then as if realizing something, the uncle’s eyes widened and his mouth dropped down wide agape. He turned to his father, “He doesn’t know.”

His father let out a deep sigh and rubbed the back of his neck.

Sean noticed a large map on the table. It seemed old, almost antique. There were figurines on them, resembling what generals had on their tables during a war. Upon closer inspection, they looked to be made of a sort of metal, glimmering in the sunlight let in through the too-many-to-count windows.

“My bad,” he said calmly and turned to Sean, “Take a seat.”

“Just… I- I don’t understand,” said Sean. He couldn’t even be angry. He was just confused now. Tired and confused.

“So basically,” said his father, calmly, just as he always was. Yesterday was different. He was acting oddly then, “Did you hear her kill count?”

“Around two hundr-” Sean started to say, but he realized it mid-sentence.

“Exactly. She’s killed more than your entire extended family when she was a teenager. You should be more worried about your father having a heart attack out of nowhere than her dying,” said the other uncle. Sean now noticed that he had a mole over his right eye and looked to be in his late forties, “And that’s damn unlikely. Now she’s got this System nonsense, too.”

His father coughed into his fists slightly, trying to have his attention again.

“Now, as I was saying, she could take on all of us in here and could come out without a scratch. She’s fine as long as she doesn’t run into a Noble,” he finished explaining, “If she runs into a Noble, it might get dangerous for Chris. He hasn’t learned the breathing yet.”

So Aunt Charlie was… strong?

Sean had heard her casually talk about killing fifty monsters when she was babysitting him and Chris, but this?

This was new.

The standards for being worried were different now.

Then Sean heard the door creak, followed by the far too joyous greeting he was used to.

“Hello there,” she said, “Look who I found! Chris’s girlfriend, the one and only!”

Sean turned around and his eyes met Chris first. He was at the door and a bright smile appeared on his face. But it disappeared when he saw Chris’s expression, and then Liz, covered in blood. The smell of iron filled his nostrils, overpowering everything else and Sean’s heart started to beat again, this time the sound resonating in his skull like war drums.

“Lil Em, a little help here!” shouted Aunt Charlie. She was holding Liz in her hands far too casually and Sean saw Liz bleeding, blood dripping on the ground.

It was as if the world stopped there.

He blacked out.

It wasn’t a loss of consciousness, but rather, he was simply frozen, still conscious but just stuck there, perceiving yet not thinking or reacting.

“She’s fine,” said Aunt Charlie and in a dismissive tone, waving her hands after placing her neatly on a sofa. Blood pooled underneath her and on the gray fabric but no one was worried. Barring maybe his mother. Chris almost bolted to her side, cupping her hand with both of his own. She was paler now.

Had she lost a lot of blood?

“They tried to turn her, apparently,” said Aunt Charlie as Sean’s mother rushed to Liz’s side, a suitcase in hand. From within, she pulled out what looked like a vial with star-colored liquid. She slapped the back of Chris’s head, eliciting a growl out of him, “Thank this young feller here for soiling her. Would have almost lost her, too.”

Sean couldn’t react. He only looked.

“How many we vials we got left?” asked a gruff voice that Sean recognized far too well —it was Uncle Jeremy, barging into the mansion as unexpectedly as Aunt Charlie.

“Three,” said Sean’s mother, pulling off the lid from the vial.

Sean recognized that smell. It was familiar but different. It smelled like Mana. He couldn’t put his finger on what it smelled like, but it was fresh, like mint, except it was slightly stronger. Except, this time, it was also mixed with the smell of flowers —it was thick, as if it was perfume. He felt himself become empowered as if he grew a meter in height.

Something deep within him told him to activate his Mana Sight, so he did.

He could see everyone and the Mana coursing through their bodies in the form of Mana Circuits. Sean hadn’t seen anyone from close up other than himself, but he could see that theirs were larger than his. Aunt Charlie looked to be practically made out of blue light, the dark blue outline that everyone else had engulfed in it.

Sean felt himself gulp as Liz swallowed it, not because he was worried, but because he wanted to drink it.

He felt like someone was drinking the last bottle of water in front of his eyes while they were stuck in the middle of a desert.

Sean saw Liz’s wounds quite literally stitch themselves together.

No…

It wasn’t simply healing. It was as if time itself was being rewound, her body being reconstructed. Blood appeared from thin air and entered her body once again, health returning to her skin as it slowly regained the tint of life. Liz’s slight tan complexion resurfaced and Sean saw her breathe again.

“What happened?” Liz asked out loud as she sat up abruptly, “Where am I?”

She bumped heads with Chris on the way up and held her forehead. Her eyes scanned the area, darting from place to place before she saw Sean. Then she saw Chris.

“There we go. I was sure a day hadn’t passed,” said Aunt Charlie with a smirk.

“I-… we were on the way to the haven and-” started Liz, confusion now clear on his face. She then turned to Chris and hugged him. She then turned to Sean and asked, “You carried me all the way here? You’re more muscular than you look.”

Sean slowly turned to Uncle Jeremy. He found it easier to hear such news from him. His mom, dad, and Aunt Charlie were far too close to life —it weirded him out to think of them as different than a normal human.

“Fairy blood,” said Uncle Jeremy helpfully, hands in his pockets, “It rewinds their mental and physical state to what it was a day ago, on the dot. As long as they’re breathing and not turned. It’s gonna be a nightmare to collect more of it, geez.”

“It’s saving someone, Jerry boy. That’s what they’re for,” said Aunt Charlie with a grin, scratching the back of her head. Then she gave him a thumbs up and with a wink, she spoke cheekily, “I’ll help you refill them later when we get the time.”

Sean could move and react again.

“Right, my parents,” Liz said, “They’re at the haven.”

“I think that’s better kept in your room, Chris,” said Sean’s father, finally joining the conversation. He simply stared at him and Chris nodded. Uncle Jeremy gave him a pouty glare and walked out of the room.

Were they children?

“Well… I’ll be out, umm… picking mushrooms. Yeah, picking mushrooms,” said Aunt Charlie and left the house swiftly, her gait almost wooden, carrying one leg after the next.

Chris was left to tend to Liz alone, the sole bearer of bad news.

If the Haven was compromised.

“Good luck,” said Sean’s mother quietly, patting Chris’s shoulder. Meanwhile, Sean’s father simply sat behind the table with the other uncle. The other aunt was still upstairs, staring at the drama down below.

He noticed that the blood on the sofa wasn’t fully gone, clearly belonging to someone, or rather… something else.

“I’ll explain everything,” said Chris quietly and he tenderly and lovingly pulled Liz up to her feet. He treated her far too delicately as if she was a glass doll.

He could only awkwardly smile and wave at them as they left.

Their first meeting and they hadn’t even exchanged greetings —the situation didn’t allow for it.

“Well, a hunt?” asked the other uncle, having remained quiet all throughout the situation.

Sean could see his father begrudgingly and slowly nodding his head.

“It’s a hunt,” he said.